It boggles the mind as to how Techland has gone from developing Call of Juarez: The Cartel (our review here), contender for one of the worst games of the year thus far, to creating a polished and entertaining zombie-slaying romp in Dead Island. For anyone that played The Cartel, you’d know that it suffered from boring gameplay, questionable weapons handling and shoddy graphics. In these respects, Dead Island is the antithesis of Techland’s last foray into the land of a first-person title.

The game kicks off with a booze-fuelled first-person perspective of a luxury island resort holidaymaker as he stumbles straight off the set of Smack My Bitch Up and into a party where the player is loosely introduced to the four key characters of the game. Xian Mei is a Royal Palms Resort employee and sharp weapons expert, Purna is an ex-Sydney cop and leet firearms handler, Logan is a former NFL superstar and throwing master, while Sam B is a one-hit rap artist who prefers swinging blunt objects.



For many reasons, there’s only one obvious choice, both from the outset and retrospectively: Sam B. First and foremost, Dead Island’s combat emphasis is on melee weapons, so if the terrible Aussie accent for Purna wasn’t enough to rule her out from her self-narrated backstory, her tendency to prefer firearms—something that isn’t exactly in abundance on a holiday island—crosses her completely off the list. On the topic of Aussie accents, seemingly every other character on the fictional island of Banoi is Australian, adding to the sheer ear bleeding factor whenever their respective voice actors attempt to sound like us. Struth, is that really what we sound like to the rest of the world? Also, terrible lip syncing—particularly in the initial levels—doesn’t help matters on this front. But back on topic. While Xian Mei and Logan are still viable choices, the plethora of blunt weapons on the island and Sam B’s high base stats make him a strangely overpowered option; at least for an initial play-through.

For any fan of looting, Dead Island is a veritable wet dream of explorable areas with bags, lockers, cupboards and various nooks and crannies to find all types of stuff to add to your semi-black hole of an inventory. Weapon slots are limited to 12, but miscellaneous items are apparently unlimited, allowing you to loot them to your heart’s content. Initially, you’ll only have access to two active weapon slots, but as you rise through the RPG ranks, you’ll unlock more. Considering how quickly weapons break down initially, and the sparseness of repair benches, the more weapons you can have on hand, the better your chances of survival.

It’s surprising how many of these spare weapon slots come in handy as you get further into the game; particularly when you take into account the XP spikes you get from completing challenges that range from general (kill X amount of zombies) to rather specific (kill X enemies using a weapon with shock damage modification). As you discover/win custom weapon modifications, you’ll plan your arsenal accordingly. A reinforced wrench is great for breaking limbs, a flaming baseball bat is perfect for turning zombies into burning death traps, while a homemade deodorant-can bomb is ideal for pacifying groups of brain munchers. That may sound a whole lot like Dead Rising, and in many ways it is, but Dead Island’s more serious tone, lack of timed fetch quests and fast loading times set it apart from Capcom’s zombie comedy.

And then, of course, there are the fair comparisons to Valve’s Left 4 Dead 2, with its inclusion of melee weapons. Ironically, the melee damage modelling for Left 4 Dead 2 is said to be one of the reasons behind is censorship in Australia. Suffice it to say, even for those who’ve seen Left 4 Dead 2 in all its gory glory, Dead Island leaves it for dead on the zombie damage modelling front. It’s not just the decapitations and limb severings that are standard fare for this type of game, it’s the depth and combat complexity that’s added by taking it all a step further.



You can target various parts of a zombie’s body to make them easier to take down. Break or sever a leg and your undead foe will have trouble getting off the ground. Smash or remove an arm and they lose the ability to strike at you with that limb. This latter combat option is particularly crucial for taking down the so-called ‘Thug’ zombie types that take a hammering and are rather adept at putting you on your arse if you venture too close. Thankfully, zombies are also susceptible to other forms of damage that we humans are as well.

Knock a zombie face first into water and they’ll start drowning as they struggle to get back up, kick them into electricity and they’ll perform a health-sapping jig, set them on fire and they’ll lose life faster but will still try to take you down. I threw a Molotov cocktail at a Thug zombie that didn’t kill him, and when he stopped writhing, he came back at me as a charred and thinner version of his once intimidating self. It’s these little additions that help to make the combat in Dead Island play like a beautiful ballet of death and destruction that doesn’t really ever get old.

Physicality also helps to push Dead Island into the league of games that warrant attention and offer intimidating staying power. In true Mirror’s Edge tradition, you’ll have a real awareness of the character’s body that you’re possessing. Whether you’re ramming down doors, swinging weapons with forearm or backhand strokes depending on your arm’s position or getting knocked on your back by a zombie overlord, this all adds to the believability of the game and turns the immersion switch to 11. The only thing that occasionally mars the awesomeness of Dead Island’s physicality is clipping stuff-ups and moments when hits don’t connect or zombies run straight through you.

Techland deserves kudos for how well the game runs, how pretty it looks and, most surprisingly, how loading times are essentially non-existent. With the exception of fast travelling (which actually lives up to its name) and moving into certain interior zones, there are no loading times, nor pauses when exploring the picturesque island locale. Unfortunately, this beauty is sporadically offset with lighting fails, shadow oddities and a rather close and jarringly noticeable rendering distance that is at its worst when driving around the island (zombies and objects will literally pop up not too far in the distance).



Technical detractors extend to invisible walls that impede on budding Dr Livingstone adventurer types, ‘You are leaving the playable area’ warnings when trying to take seafaring shortcuts and quest bugs that temporarily stop progression. The lack of a manual save option is a weird omission but is partially offset by a generous and mostly practical auto-save feature. There’s also a distinct lack of punishment for player deaths. When you die you’re simply respawned somewhere else on the island. This usually takes the form of a location close to where you died, but I did have one instance where I came to randomly on the other side of the island. But the odd thing is you don’t seem to lose anything; not money, nor experience, you simply come to five seconds later and go at it again. The only other major oddity is the apparent inability to quit back to the main menu while in-game.

In a time when Deus Ex: Human Revolution has completely captured my attention, I was surprised with how much I wanted to jump back into Dead Island. As a fan of all-things zombie, I went in with high expectations and found that the game ticked a lot of the right boxes. Throw seamless drop-in/drop-out co-op into the mix so all of this can be enjoyed with friends or randoms and the appeal is a whole lot stronger, particularly considering the clever variations between quests. For those who love zombie games or those looking for an open-world RPG that offers plenty of hours for your investment, Dead Island is well worth the visit.